SAP Mobile Services Client

What this SAP Mobile Services Client is for

The SAP Mobile Services Client is a client for running enterprise apps that an SAP Mobile Services instance provides. The developer describes it as a native iOS application. It contains no business apps of its own. Its screens and logic come from metadata that the server delivers when the client connects.

That metadata is written in an SAP Business Application Studio or SAP Web IDE-based editor, then published through the App Update service of SAP Mobile Services. The client downloads it and builds the app from it. Because the definitions live on the server, the same client can run different business apps depending on what the instance sends.

The listing describes the client as generic. Without a connection to a Mobile Services instance, there is nothing for it to show.

Connecting to a Mobile Services instance

Setup requires an endpoint URL and some other connection properties. The listing says these usually come inside a custom link that starts with sapmobilesvcs://, sent to the user's email. Opening that link passes the settings to the client.

The connection is made securely. Once it is set up, the client receives the app metadata and then connects to one or more OData services. Those services supply the data the app displays and edits.

Someone without an instance to connect to, or without the emailed link, has no way to reach an app through this client.

Working with data offline

OData from the connected services can be stored locally on the device in a secure way, so the app can still show that data when there is no network. The listing states this as a feature but does not say which operations work offline or how syncing is handled.

Offline storage is a property of the OData services the client connects to. The client handles the storage; what gets stored depends on how each service is set up.

The interface and how it is built

The screens use the SAP Fiori framework. Fiori is SAP's design system, so apps built on it share a common layout and set of controls across different business functions.

Because the interface is assembled from the JSON metadata, the on-screen layout follows whatever the server-side definition contains. The client itself carries no fixed set of screens.